


I’ve been questioning when you’re gonna see I’m not part of your machine

by cutebutpsyco



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 40s mentality, Agent Carter timeline Howard and Peggy, Agent Carter/CATFA Howard, Endgame never happened, Iron Man Bigbang 2019, M/M, Peggy&Nat are bff, Post A4, Stephen Strange is a Gift, Steve Rogers is confused, Time Travel, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark is Confused, but they are not, everyone is confused in this one, mentions of Howard Stark A+ parenting, or better the avengers are afraid that Howard and Peggy can be homophobic, supreme family with Harley and his sister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 07:41:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: IRON MAN BIGBANG 2019 ||When Howard and Peggy try to contain Zero Matter, they are dragged inside Howard’s invention and sent in the future. After Thanos, the Avengers are trying to go on with their lives. Tony, after Pepper called off the engagement, started to date Stephen and they are going to be married. All the Avengers moved back at the Tower and the old grounds are settling. Which is why Tony isn’t happy at all when Friday alerts him that there’s something going on in a very old Stark’s propriety in LA. The last thing he’s waiting for is facing his father and Aunt Peggy. He has no idea how to send them back to their time, so, for now, decides to bring them to the Tower, but he’s not sure it’s his best idea ever.





	I’ve been questioning when you’re gonna see I’m not part of your machine

**Author's Note:**

> So, this idea had been in my mind for so long and I started to write it around May of the last year, then inspiration started to fade and I decided to join the IMBB with it because I'm really proud of this idea of mine. 
> 
> I LOVE Agent Carter!Howard, I'd really hoped they gave us an explanation for his behaviour with Tony in Endgame, but guess what, I'm a stupid girl and I really believed somebody else cared about character development. I swear, I'll stop to be salty, but don't hold your breath while waiting. Anyway, rated mature because Tony remembers about his childhood. 
> 
> That said, as always, nothing belongs to me, the title is from Machine by Imagine Dragons and the wonderful fanart that you can see in the fic is made by [Mia aka acastleintheair](https://acastleintheair.tumblr.com/)!

Tony had no idea of what was happening. His whiskey brown eyes were fixed on the screen in front of him in the Stark Tower. 

“What am I looking at, Friday?” He asked the moment when strange numbers started to pop out from the Hollywood area.

“You told me to keep checking all the Stark’s proprieties and these are the energy levels from two minutes ago in the old Stark Studios,” A place that Tony should have shouted down a long time ago. He still had no idea why he didn’t. It wasn’t like anyone ever worked there in the first place, quite the opposite. He didn’t even know why they existed. Probably his father just needed an excuse to made naive girls take their clothes off in front of him.  
Ok, maybe Tony couldn’t exactly blame Howard for that, but still. He had never been interested in the cinema industry. 

“Do we still have cameras down there?” He asked, instead, considering for a while to send a text to Stephen and ask him to go and check that everything was fine. Then he remembered that, very likely, his wonderful boyfriend had something better to do, something like keeping together their world, and that Tony didn’t give a fuck about Howard’s properties. 

“Nothing I can access to, boss.” 

Which meant analogic, Tony nodded. “Compare the scans with what you can see from the nearby cameras you can access to and get the suit ready, I’ll going to see if something happened.”

It was hardly a threat but it was better to be sure about that. After Thanos, Tony promised himself he wouldn’t let nothing suspicious to get away under his eyes. He might not have Spidey-sense or whatever but good old perceiving sense was fucking tickling in the back of his mind. “And send a text to Stephen, tell him to reach me in LA as soon as he can.”

“Done, I’ll send the pictures to the suit as well.”

“Good girl.”

—

Tony didn’t believe at his own eyes. In front of him, there was what looked like an enormous vacuum with the Stark Industries logo on it and two persons near to it. A man and a woman who looked in the wrong century and still had something familiar. 

Which was definitely crazy, to be honest. He looked at them, in the orange light of the sunset, trying to understand who the hell they were and why his brain was trying to bring back memories he wasn’t even sure he possessed. For a good measure, he decided it was better to prevent and rose his right arm, ready to blast the two. 

Then the woman seemed to notice him and in the beat on an eye there was a gun in her right hand and she said: “Howard, where are we?”

And Tony froze for two different reasons. The first was the name the woman used, the second was that he knew that voice. It was the voice of someone from his past, a sort of happy past, and wasn’t so soft in his memories, but he knew it and knew the person at whom that voice belonged. The woman didn’t wait for an answer from the man - _Howard, fucking Howard Stark,_ because seriously who would have called his son Howard in the year of Lord 2019?- and moved a step toward an astonished and very grateful for his facial plate Tony. Somewhere between the moment, he heard the woman’s voice and the moment when Peggy Carter was in front of him he lowered his arm trying to focus on Friday’s voice in his ears, but he couldn’t stop looking at Aunt Peggy’s determined eyes. 

Tony couldn’t see his father’s face from where the other man was but, maybe, it was for the best. “If this is some weird inventions of yours Howard…” Peggy was ranting, looking at the suit eyes. Tony knew he had to say something but revealing his face with an ‘Auntie’ or the likes wasn’t something he would do, not before being certain about who the woman was. She was supposed to be older, _and died as well_ , and there were no reasons why she was in Los Angeles in the first place.

“Why…? What…? Of course, it isn’t,” Howard answered, and fuck! He didn’t sound at all like his father but it was his voice. And Tony knew, again, he had to do something but when also breathing was difficult how was he supposed to speak? 

“New text message from Stephen, boss,” Friday said while his father was looking around as if he was looking for something. Tony found himself asking if he wasn’t trapped in some sort of weird dream. But Stephen’s name brought him back to reality or, at least, helped his mind to gather oxygen back in his lungs. “He says that Los Angeles is kind of a vague location, should I send him yours?”

“Yeah,” Tony said, half mouth. By now, also his father moved closed and the first response of Tony’s body was the same he used to have when he was a child: back off. But he wasn’t a child any more, so he waited for Howard to be close enough to speak: “What are you doing of my propriety?”

To give something to his father, the glance he threw to him was just slightly murderous. Of course, probably, the suit helped a lot. “I beg your pardon? These are the Stark’s Studios and I am Howard Stark, how can this property be yours?”

“Howard,” Peggy sounded exhausted and also at that voice tone Tony was used. It was the same she used with him when he exasperated the hell out of her, usually complaining about the man who was in front of him. Or, better, his older version. “We should worry about Zero Matter, right now.” 

And what the fuck Zero Matter was, now? Ok, no time for games, apparently. He retracted the facial plate and while he did it he saw Peggy’s gun going back on him. Great, his godmother was going to shoot to him in front of his father while his boyfriend was probably on his way! It sounded almost like a good day, in Tony’s agenda. 

“I’m Anthony Stark,” He said, looking everywhere else but at Howard. “And…”

The typical whirring sound of an opening portal swallowed every other word Tony was thinking about while Stephen stepped out of it and Peggy’s gun turned to the sorcerer. Now, though, also Howard was pointing a gun at him. Which also reminded Tony that to tell a man who was supposed to be dead and not looking thirty at best that he was his son wasn’t the best move ever, but still.  
Things were going to be extremely complicated. 

“Ok, ok, everyone chill!” He half screamed, raising his hands and looking at Stephen which was questioning his boyfriend with his glance, as if he wanted to know if he had to knock out Peggy and Howard. “Why don’t you tell me what are you doing there?”

“Why should we?” Howard, of course. “I would know if there was an Anthony in my family.”

“Tony, lo…?” 

“Not now, Steph,” He answered, and there was enough for the sorcerer to look in his eyes to understand there was something wrong in Tony. The other man nodded and, seriously, the genius didn’t deserve a person like him at his side. “Ok so… I guess I’m not born yet,” He said and even if he wasn’t sure it wasn’t a dream was pretty clear that the man in front of him was his father and considering that he was way too young it must have been some sort of time travel to brought him there. An eventuality in which Tony would have refused to believe in until all the Thanos thing. “Fuck,” His father wasn’t going to believe in his story either, Tony could bet his own fortune on it. “Ok, in what year you think we are?”

“It’s 1946,” Peggy said. And, of course, he wasn’t born yet. “Isn’t it?”

Tony wanted either to laugh, to cry or simply wake up. Or maybe he was trapped in some sort of fucking magic. He had no idea. He lowered his eyes, looking for his engagement ring - _I know it’s a magic detector, Moody, you won’t fool me, thank you so much_ \- but, of course, he couldn’t see it through the armour. “It’s 2019,” Stephen provided, looking at the two strangers in front of them. 

And what appeared on Howard’s face was… Not what Tony imagined. He was surprised, of course, he was, but when his eyes, _you have your father’s eyes, Tony_ , rose on his face there wasn’t something he learnt to associate to Howard Stark looking at him. 

“What… Are you…?” He asked and his lips curled up in what looked like a softer smile than the one he threw to Peggy before. The woman at his side was looking around as if she was waiting for someone to attack them in the middle of the movie studios and Tony could actually feel the Cloak moving on Stephen’s backs. Everything else was deadly silent. 

Tony breathed and it was clear how exhausted he was. “Your son.” He answered, drily. 

The four of them stood there for a while as if everyone was trying to processing what was happening. Stephen, maybe both being the one stranger to that conversation and the calm person he was, intervened a moment after opening the Eye of Agamotto and letting green magic inspect the place. It didn’t require long before he spoke again: “Mr Stark, Ms S…”

“Carter,” Tony stopped him, finding somehow both funny and disturbing that Stephen could think that Peggy was his mother. 

“Mr Stark, Ms Carter, it looks like something opened a tunnel in the time-space continuum and brought you there from 1946,” He said, looking at the two of them as if he was waiting for a confirm from them. 

“Zero Matter,” Howard said, looking at Peggy. “Could it be the cause?”

“Friday, tell me what Zero Matter is, would you mind?” 

“Who are you speaking with?” His father asked him, looking at Stephen a moment later. “Who is he?”

“Stephen Strange, Supreme Sorcerer,” Tony provided before the AI’s voice in his ears suggested him that the search was completed. If one of them was surprised by the wizard’s part of it, they didn’t show it. He recalled the masked on his face and then looked at the information that Friday collected on whatever that Zero Matter shit was. “You both destroyed it, from what SHIELD files say.”

“SHIELD?” Howard asked. Yeah, another thing that wasn’t born yet. 

“Yeah, it’s… complicated,” Tony said. He couldn’t be angry, it didn’t even matter that the man in front of him was his father, he didn’t look as Howard at all and there was little wrong that he could do to him, now. No, his problems weren’t with this Howard anyway. 

“Stephen, can you portal us all in NYC?” He asked the sorcerer, looking at the other two. Peggy gave up her hold on the gun and looked as confused as Tony. Howard, though, looked enthusiastic, his eyes kept running on the armour with the same light of a baby that discovered Christmas and his birthday happened on the same day. 

—

A moment later they all were in the Stark Tower main room. Tony didn’t bring them in the Penthouse but the Avengers quarters were big enough, and only a moment later he understood how he should have explained everything before considering that Steve left everywhere his stuff. And everywhere implied also the living room. His old shield was there, star and stripes shining of it.  
Peggy’s eyes went so enormous that it was almost comical, and Howard all but felt on the couch where the shield was, nursing the goddamn thing.  
Now, he looked like his father. 

“How do you have this?” He asked, and Tony couldn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes. 

“SHIELD found Cap, which would sincerely be funnier if you were from, I don’t know, the 70s,” His tone was fucking bitter but, hey, could you blame him? 

He had just an idea of how that could go any worse and, seriously, was so tempted to text Cap to stay as far as possible from the Tower. He didn’t need to witness his thirty-or-something-years-old father having a man-crush for the man who tried to kill him. He turned to look at Peggy who was, at least, keeping herself together and understood that he couldn’t, not any longer.

Without even excusing himself, not that he had to, it was his house, after all, he walked out of the living room, reaching the hallway and resting his back against the wall at his back. He had no idea how long he stayed there, though when he felt a comforting weight on his shoulders he knew Stephen reached him, and Cloakie put itself around him. 

“Hey pretty thing,” He said, and his voice was so weak. He rose his eyes on his fiancé who smiled at him and walked again back to their guests. Tony didn’t even know if it was real. Stephen said they travelled in time, that was what he felt with the Eye of Agamotto but he still had so many questions and all that Zero Matter thing wasn’t helping at all.  
He needed to think about that too, but once he would have set his father and Peggy. Everything was just too overwhelming. He tried to focus on Stephen’s voice, soft and sweet, coming from the living room. He was trying to fill Peggy and Howard with everything he knew about Cap, but Tony couldn’t exactly hear everything of what he said, his mind keeping blacking in and out. 

He tugged at the Cloak and tried to settle into its embrace but also that, which had always been easy and familiar since the first moment, was difficult. He had to imagine about speaking with his father, once, he thought that if they both were older they would have, at least, understand each other better but that, that was fucked up. 

After some minutes, which may, as well, had been hours, every sound in the living room fell silent. “It’s not my place to answer this, Ms Carter.” Tony heard Stephen said after some moments of that awkward silence, and Tony suspected to know which the question was. 

“It’s Peggy,” She answered. “And that’s fine, Doctor.” 

Tony lingered in the hallway for a while more, focusing just on the sound of Stephen’s voice until Cloakie helped him on his feet and almost forced him in going back to his father and godmother. The sky of New York was darker than he had guessed.

“Maybe we should eat something,” He decided, “Then we can continue this conversation.”

They all agreed and it didn’t take long for the four of them to be seated around the table, the best Italian food in New York settled between them.

“And if I had some doubts about him being your son, Howard, now I had the confirm,” Peggy mocked him and the smile on Howard’s lips was proud? No, definitely not his father. Stephen seemed to notice that these gestures upset him because took his hand under the table and squeezed it. 

They were half in their dinner when the lift doors opened and Peter appeared in the hall. “Iron Dad, Doctor…” He said, stopping just in time when he saw the strangers that were eating with them. Tony, again, thanked a god in which he didn’t believe. They would, eventually, tell everything to his guests -also because there was the little particular of the Stucky, as the media called them, living in the Tower, and their fucking wedding announcement was still too fresh for the news, but Tony wanted to be the one to explain to his father.  
This Howard Stark might not look like the one he knew, but someone couldn’t just radically change. 

“What?” Said Howard Stark asked, looking at the teen. “Am I suddenly a father and a grandfather in a couple of hours?”

“Wait…? Father? Mr Stark what does…?” Peter was looking at him, eyes comically wide growing even wider when also Howard’s attention was on him when he said Mr Stark. 

“He’s not my son, not biologically,” Tony said, “He’s my intern, and… Look, he’s my Peter. And Pete, Howard Stark and Peggy Carter.”

“Peggy Carter as in Agent Carter?” The kid almost jumped in excitement, looking at the couple. “And Howard… Oh my god, is he your father?”

Stephen was trying not to laugh, it was evident, but was frankly the only one who was having fun, maybe but for Peter. Who was looking, dead seriously, in Howard’s eyes. “You should be like, super proud of Mr Stark! He’s the mightiest Earth Defender! And a genius and…”

“And again, I’m afraid we are telling all these things to the wrong man, chill kid!” Tony commented, receiving an inquisitor glance from Peggy. Howard’s expression was… weird at best. 

When they finally ended to eat, Tony showed Peggy and his father a couple of free rooms and walked up for the Penthouse. The moment Peter was out from the lift, Stephen pushed his lips again his own and Tony could let go all the anxiety he tried to contain since Friday informed him of the strange energy levels in LA.

“Hey, hey, love,” Stephen whispered, keeping Tony against his chest once they walked into the kitchen. The kids were in the living room, Peter was packing his things before going back at home while their real children, the Keeners who happened to be adopted by Tony after their mother died in a car accident because of an accident caused by the following of the snap, were watching the television. Or better, Harley was, chatting along with Peter at the same time, while his sister was asleep in front of the screen. “What’s wrong?” 

His fiancé asked and even if it was a dumb question, Tony knew what really meant. “It’s just… that man, he doesn’t look at all as my father, y’know?”

“He does, though,” Stephen’s smile was almost wicked. “Like, he’s a totally hot man. With gorgeous facial hair.” 

“You dork, I love you.”

“I love you, too.” And Tony always was surprised by how sincere Stephen looked when he pronounced those words. He felt protected, he knew he could trust that they were honest. 

“I’d always wished to speak with him, for real. Asking him how did I disappointed him and now,” He scoffed. “He didn’t even know I’m his son.”

“Ms Carter asked me about Cap,” Stephen answered to him. “Not about the elephant in the room. She asked me about you and him. And when I told her it wasn’t my place to tell them about it, I looked at Howard. There was something, in his eyes. Curiosity,” Stephen started to trace little circles on Tony’s back who stiffened as soon as he hard Rogers’s name. “I think that this Howard never thought about being a father, but he’d like to know you, as a friend, at least.” 

“Do you think I should speak to him about his future self and me?” Tony asked, knowing he looked broken and exhausted. 

“I don’t know, but you should speak to him, just the two of you. Probably avoiding the other elephant in the room.”

“We live in a circus.” 

“Yeah, and now I’m going to bring that little monkey to bed.” He said, walking in the living room and reappearing a moment later with their daughter between his arms. 

—

The following morning, they got wake up by screams from the lower floor and they all but rush in the lift. Stephen perfectly dressed, thank you so much magic, and Tony completely unpresentable.

The scene in front of them was a mess: Howard was in front of Peggy, trying to shield her from Steve who looked on the verge of a panic attack and from Nat who was pointing a gun directly at Stark’s chest, with a very steady hand.

Tony rushed for his father, pushing slightly him back while Stephen moved his hands, creating the golden-orange circles, ready to stop the two Avengers. 

“There’s no need to any of this,” Tony said, once he was sure Natasha wasn’t going to shoot to his guests. “Rogers, I think you know them better than I do.” He turned to look at Nat. “Romanov, my father and Ms Peggy Carter.” 

“What the hell does this mean?” Steve asked the moment he was able to say anything. 

“It means what you can see. Yesterday evening the two of them arrived in LA, Steph there told dad kind of invented the time travel machine while was trying to invent something different.”

“Oh, now I see the similarities,” Nat said, smiling at Peggy who seemed to be the only person in the room who found her words funny. “I’m sorry, for trying to shoot you, but when I walked in…” 

“It’s ok,” Peggy interrupted her. “We didn’t think there was someone else either.” 

“So, they are there, for real?” Steve interrupted them. 

“Yeah, you got your little happy team from the war back together.” Tony didn’t even know why he sounded so jealous, but he did, lying to himself was pointless. Probably he had always been. Knowing his father loved Steve more than he would ever love him was the worse thing ever, until the Barnes matter came out in the light, at least. But, again, the man who was in front of him had nothing of his father.  
He was the Howard Steve had known, he was the Howard from Aunt Peggy’s tales, and Tony had no idea how to deal with this Howard. Maybe was a good thing that Steve was there. 

“How are they even there? I mean, time travel, I get but, how?” Steve asked, again, and he was kind of hugging himself, his cerulean eyes looking everywhere but at Peggy. 

“I created a machine which could work like a vacuum and disintegrate the matter that flew in it,” Howard explained. “We were trying to stop the Zero Matter to spread and kill everyone in Los Angeles, but something went wrong, I got dragged by Zero Matter and Peggy tried to hold me…”

“And they appeared there, well, not in New York but still, though I think now it’s a more appropriate term.” 

“So, what are going to do?” Nat asked, to no-one in particular. “Waiting for the wedding and sending them back or... ?”

The weird look in his father’s eyes didn’t pass unobserved to Tony. The truth was that he didn’t think about what do next, for the first time in his life. If there was a possibility in which he could speak with his father, understand his reasons and, maybe, just maybe, trying to make him behave better with the future/past self, he would take it. But he also knew that, at some point, he had to send them back in their time. “I hadn’t thought about this, Nat. I just…”

“I think you should try to send us back,” Howard said, “As far as I’d like to stay there, if I am your father, if I’m here I can’t, you know, being out there and meeting your mother… At least she isn’t Peggy.” There was a mocking tone, in his voice. 

“If this is the case, I’d like to know what he gave me to even consider the idea of marrying him.” The woman said and everyone but Steve started to laugh. 

“Can we please don’t?” Cap asked, instead. 

“No, Peggy isn’t my mom,” Tony assured, running a hand in his hair and questioning when his life became that. “Though Howard is right, I don’t know how the laws of time work, I’m not the expert here, but I’m not sure I will survive at the ‘how daddy didn’t meet mummy’ course of events and I enjoy my life, thank you so much. So, yeah, we will have to figure out how to bring them back in time.” _At least they won’t risk meeting their older selves._ Tony thought but decided it was better to keep that for himself. 

They argued for a while about what could have happened to Tony if Howard missed the moment when he met Maria, then Nat decided Peggy and him needed a tour of the modern New York and kind of shoved the two of them in the lift leaving Steve, Stephen and Tony in the living room. 

“So, have you told them?” Steve asked the moment the doors closed behind the other three. 

“What? About you and Bucky?” Tony asked. He knew Steve took very long to bring Bucky even accept a relationship, the man didn’t trust himself and wasn’t even sure about the idea of Captain America being with another man in the first place, but they were happy, now that he did. “They don’t even know about Stephen and me, I won’t tell them about you, why should I?”

“It’s just, it’s weird, okay?” Steve said. 

“Yeah, it is. This man looks nothing like the one I remember,” Tony confessed and he had no idea why he was telling this to Steve. Their relationship got better after Thanos, he still was angry with Cap for Siberia but they had been forced to work together and somehow they were trying to make things work. “And also Aunt Peggy, but I know they are them.”

“Maybe knowing the Howard I knew will help you,” Steve said. “It’s better if Bucky and I will stay at the Compound, though.” 

He rose from the couch and went probably in his quarters. Tony had no idea if what Cap said was true, but it was likely that he was. Steve had always had a high opinion about Howard, maybe the man who was his guest was really different from the one he knew. 

“Do you want me to stay at the Sanctum until we solve the things there?” Stephen asked him, looking at him. Tony shook his head. 

“I need you there, darling if Steve is right… Maybe I can tell him about us.” 

—

When Peggy, Howard and Nat came back, Tony’s father looked even more as a child. Tony could understand him. New York had always been one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, but in the last years that became even more clear and, even for people who lived in 2019 it seemed to be a gate on the future. His father was from more than 70 years before. 

“Ok, he is totally your father, and I’m still more certain that Parker is, indeed, your biological son because the three of you could blab about science for hours,” Nat stated, a soft smile on her lips despite her words. “Though Peggy and I went shopping, and I have a meeting with Fury half an hour ago so, hello everyone.” She waved her hand and disappeared a moment later back in the lift while Peggy took her bags and retire in her quarters. Stephen left for the Sanctum before the others came back which left Tony alone with Howard.

The man who was returning his glance was as far from his father as Tony was different from Thor, to say someone. If he hadn’t had Friday run some DNA test on the fork he used during the dinner of the previous day, he wouldn’t have believed that he was, indeed, Howard Stark. 

“Ok, that’s weird, say something,” Tony said, a moment later, looking up at his father. Howard paced toward the sofa on which the genius was seated and nodded. 

“I don’t know what to say, Tony.” 

“Anthony,” The other corrected him. There was something weird in Howard calling him Tony. He almost never did which was the reason why Tony went with that nickname instead of his real name in the first place. “I… You always called — will call, I suppose — me Anthony.” 

Every track of smile on Howard’s face faded. He nodded and for a while, both of them went silent again. Tony really, really wished for something to happen, from a little threat to another Thanos, everything was better than whatever that conversation was. And as if Howard wanted to prove him wrong, he spoke again: “We were not very close, weren’t we?”

Which, of course, he would have expected a question on those lines. He nodded, without even knowing how much he could reveal of his past. Messing with time and space was tricky. What if he said something that could lead at Howard never marry Maria? Or a future in which Tony didn’t have the need to create his own friends? What if he said something that would have led him to never meet Stephen? It was enough for him to speak about the night the Winter Soldier killed him and his mum and he’d never become Iron Man, meaning never meeting Stephen, and Bruce, and Nat, and Peter and Harley. Meaning never having a family. 

A hand reached for his arm, soft on his skin while tracing the faint path of a scar that ran from his wrist to his armpit. It was unexpected, but not totally uncomfortable, just weird. And anyway, it gave Tony something else to focus on which wasn’t the downfall of his life if he said too much to Howard. “Hey, son, are you right?” A voice from his side asked, and when he nodded, a little chuckle left the other man’s lips. “C’ mon, breathe. It’s fine, whatever it was.”

The genius nodded his way out of the beginning of a panic attack just to find himself face to face with Howard Stark. Not that he expected for someone else to be there, but his dark eyes weren’t severe as Tony remembered. They were worried and there was something like recognition in the deep of them. He was still holding Tony’s arm and, casting his eyes on his own hand, he let it go a moment later: “Sorry for that, but usually human contact helps me.” 

Tony nodded, adding the half confirmation of the fact that his father admitted of having panic attacks as if it was nothing, to a long list of things in which he couldn’t believe. Number one, his father being in his living room, to be honest. “It’s fine, it’s just - Let’s put it like that, the person I remember you were would never do anything of this.” 

“I get that,” Howard said. “I’m sorry, Anthony,” _So am I,_ Tony wanted to answer. Bitterly, but it wasn’t this man the one who hit him over and over again during his childhood and Tony couldn’t be angry with this Howard. “I don’t know how Peggy and I ended up there and now, but just know that I’m glad to know I’ll have a son.”

“What the fuck happened with you?” Tony whispered, before going back to focus on the man in front of him who was still waiting for an answer, probably. “I don’t know what I can tell you without risking my own present, but no, we didn’t get along. I wasn’t enough Captain America for you.” 

“He’s my greatest creation,” Howard said, and now, well, now he sounded like the Howard Tony remembered, if not that now he wasn’t speaking about him but about someone who he actually created, in a lab, not in bed. “I almost got killed to try to save his blood. But I’m sorry if the future me would choose him over you. I wish I could do something.”

“You probably can’t. But it’s okay.” The silence felt back again on them. Tony didn’t lie, though, it was okay, it was okay if this younger version of Howard was sorry for his future self behaviour. And it was okay that there wasn’t anything that he could do. Having a fiancé that controlled the Time Stone meant knowing, even more than in the past, that knowledge has consequences. He had no idea how long they both stayed there, but he could say that there was something going on in Howard’s mind, maybe as well as there was something going on in his. He didn’t know for how long they just studied each other and got their conclusions but, after what seemed to be a century the silence threatened to crush Tony, so he spoke again: “I meant to head to the workshop, do you want to join? Kids will be back in a couple of hours and then it will be impossible to have some work done.” 

Howard nodded. “Kids? I thought it was just your Peter.”

“Long story,” Tony said, flashing his father with his PR smile. He can see almost Howard’s face recognize it and morphing into a very same one, but he said nothing. “And quite a boring one. I think you’ll be more interested in seeing the last technology discoveries.” 

Setting in his workshop with Howard was surprisingly easy for Tony. It wasn’t like the man knew half of the things Tony was working at, but he seemed extremely happy to help with what he could and asking questions every now and then. It was pleasant, and something that Tony didn’t remember ever doing with his father. 

“How do you find Vibranium?” He asked, after a long time of silence between the two of them. “I thought it was sealed up in Wakanda.”

“After that, you pretty much stole it from them?” Tony retorted, but there wasn’t any animosity in the tone of his voice. “The King of Wakanda is a friend, and his little sister has technology that which can only image. I should introduce you two, one day or the other.” 

Howard nodded, content with staying in the workshop and browsing around Tony’s old projects and helping him with the new design of the Iron Man suit. That’s until DUM-E walked over the older man, dropping something over Howard’s new tailored suit. And, at that, Tony came back being a four years old kid, waiting for his father to burst out in yells and beating him for not having paid attention. 

Or, maybe, Howard wouldn’t dare considering that Tony was a grown man, but this didn’t change a thing. He let go the screwdriver he was holding a moment before and turned toward his father, feeling the gauntlet of the armour taking form around his extended arm. He didn’t want to hurt his own father but was scared of what Howard could do to DUM-E. And the flashbacks pushing at the limit of his mind weren’t helping at all.  
The last thing he expected, though, was for his father’s eyes to become wider and the man bowing toward the bot, taking off his jacket and throwing it somewhere like if he was used to that kind of incidents. He almost didn’t notice the arm pointed at him until with an inquisitorial beep the bot turned his claw toward Tony. 

At that sight, Howard rose his hands, chewing his lower lip. “I didn’t want to hurt him.”

—

“And then he called Dum he! Nobody ever called him he the first time,” Tony was whispering in the otherwise silent room. And, despite everything, Stephen can hear the excitement in his voice. They were in their bed, and Tony was glad for the fact that Stephen came back from the Sanctum so that he could tell him about his afternoon with his father. Not that they had planned to stop it anytime soon, but Peggy came down, rolled her eyes and threatened to kick they asses if they didn’t walk upstairs to have dinner, and nobody, ever, said no to Aunt Peggy. It was nice to see that some things didn’t change. “Not even you.” 

Stephen flashed his fiancé with a soft smile, but what Tony didn’t like it in was the fact that it seemed to be off, like if there was something he wasn’t telling the man. He pushed himself up, looking at his lover’s wonderful eyes. “What’s wrong, babe?” 

“I spoke with Wong,” He let out. It was not news, they need all the help they can gather with the time travelling problem, and the other wizard was the best suited for that task. He had been studying the mystical art for a century, by now, probably. Nobody really knows how old the Asian man was, he himself continually changed the argument when his age came up. “He told me that once we will figure a way to bring them back in time we’ll need to erase their memories.” 

Tony nodded, against Stephen’s warm skin. Thought that was enough to bring his brain in the darkest place possible. If they erased Howard and Peggy’s memories, this meant that he would become the father Tony remembered him to be, without keeping even the slightest idea of what his son could do and the time they were sharing in Tony’s own timeline. It wasn’t perfect, old Howard’s ghost still lingering between them, but the man he spent the day with made more believable the words Fury told him a long time ago about his father being proud of him. Without even noticed, Tony rose from the bed and was now seated on it, his left hand holding his right one as strong as it was physically capable of. “Love…?” 

“Just, I get it, Steph, I get it!” Tony voice was immediately colder. He turned to look at his husband-to-be and then just want back at staring the wall in front of him, his brain trying desperately to find a way to keep his father’s memories. It was selfish, Tony knew it, but, maybe, if Howard remembered of having known him when he was an adult he would have considered worthy his future baby boy. “I hated him, god I hate him,” He said, in a whisper. “I’d been frightened to be a father for half of my life because I knew I would have become like him. And then… He’s a nice guy. If I fail with our kids, it’s on me, it’s because of me.” 

The weight under Tony’s body shifted slightly, indicating that Stephen came closer. And Tony hated himself even more because he knew that Eugene Strange could compete and win the worse father’s prize over Howard Stark. 

“I know,” He said. “But neither I or Wong know how to bring them back, yet. And maybe we will find a way not to mess up with the timeline,” Stephen smiled, pushing his lips against Tony’s shoulder blade. “And believe me, you are a wonderful father and the kids love you so much.” 

It wasn’t the first time they had that conversation. Maybe, this time included the fact that Tony knew a side of Howard he had never seen before, but it didn’t change how difficult for him it was to believe in what Stephen said.  
Having spent his best years jumping from a bed to the following let him with the certainty that he would never have a family. Maybe he had some kid already, from women of which he didn’t even remember the name, maybe some woman decided to abort his children, not that Tony could know, but he was sure he would never be a father. 

And, while he started to become more conscious of the few time he had left, he wanted to leave a heritage, he wanted to have a child to grow up. Meeting Peter had been the final push of something which started with Harley a long time before, so when he came back on Earth and met the kid from Tennessee again, along with his sister, this time, and he told him what happened - well, adopt them had been the most rational thing to do. They had nobody else in the world and Harley didn’t exactly strike like someone who could do well in foster families. 

He wasn’t dating Stephen, back in the day. Actually, he wasn’t even planning to ask him out, despite having the greatest crush on the Doctor. Now, eight months later, Strange signed adoption papers as well and they were due to be married. Tony let his hand ran on Stephen’s neck, dragging him closed and forcing his back to twist slightly so that he could see Stephen’s dark hair pushing against his cheek and his fiancé’s half-opened eyes. 

“I love you,” He whispered, and the genius took with his left hand Stephen’s, letting his tanned fingers ran over the engagement ring. And, ok, maybe Tony cheated and it was vibranium and nanoparticles that helped in stabilize Stephen’s fingers, but Stephen put a fucking spell on Tony’s ring, so it was fine. He just loved to see the thin silver band on his fiancé. Whatever word was going to leave Strange’s lips after that sentence got silenced by Stark’s tongue opening its way inside Stephen’s mouth. 

—

Natasha was stretching over the counter when Tony walked out from the lift in the Avengers’ common kitchen. He would usually use his own in the Penthouse, but with Howard and Peggy hosted in the Tower he thought it was better if he stayed with the other. 

He tilted his head by one side, an interrogative glance in the deep of his eyes. It wasn’t unusual to see Nat doing weird things in places where everyone could see her, but usually, it was if there was someone around, and only if she wanted to prove a point, or wanted something from someone. (Like the time she convinced Stephen to teach her his morning meditation routine before he and Tony get together. And nope, Tony didn’t need the one extremely attractive, smart and intelligent Black Widow in tight leggins anywhere near the man he had the greatest crush on.) Now, she was again wearing a sports attire, black leggings, a deep bloody red t-shirt and an Avengers sweatshirt. She looked like she was going out to jog, or something. Which was weird because she usually preferred sleep ‘till noon when she didn’t have any mission. “Is everything alright?” 

“Yes, Peggy and I just returned from Central Park, you should join us, tomorrow morning,” She said sipping from her cup. And that didn’t help at all with Tony’s confusion. Not until Peggy walked into the kitchen with another Avengers sweatshirt in hand. 

“Thank you for this, Natasha,” She said, looking at Tony a moment later. “Oh, I thought you would have been asleep for the next ten hours. Good morning, then.” 

“You can keep it, I have like a hundred of those, and, anyway, it’s Nat,” The smile she gave Peggy was more sincere than every other smile Tony had ever seen on her lips. The British woman nodded and then said that she was going to take a shower before joining them for breakfast. 

The moment she disappeared back in the hallway, Tony went back on the other woman, letting his eyes run from her to the now empty common room. “So, now you do that with Aunt Peggy?”

“ _That_ is jogging, Tony,” She smiled. “And, anyway, Aunt Peggy is super cool. I’d been heard of her for my entire life as a SHIELD agent. She’s my hero.”

Tony looked at her for a moment. It wasn’t the first time Natasha was honest with him, probably he was the only person with whom she had ever been honest in a long, long time, but that was on a completely different kind of honesty. “Meeting your heroes is not always for the best.”

“Say this to Peter,” The small smile that tinted her lips was enough for Tony to shook his head and roll his eyes at the ceiling all the same. She was right, of course, she was, but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t feel like a hero, never had, and especially, he knew that, because of Peter’s believing in he being a hero, the kid put himself in danger one day and the other. And Tony felt responsible for that. 

“So,” Nat asked a moment later, filling again her cup, Tony mirrored her movements. “Did your fiancé find something…?”

It was the last thing he wanted to speak about with everyone, he wasn’t still sure about what to do, but the short time he passed with his father in the lab the day before was something he had never hoped and he wasn’t ready to let it go. 

“Stephen just said that when we bring them back we will have to delete their memory,” Lying to her was pointless. Nat nodded gravely. 

“It makes sense.”

“I know, that’s the point,” He tried to explain. “It’s just, I feel like - If Howard remembers about me, maybe he’ll be a better father. He’ll understand that I can be the person he has always wanted me to be.”

“When you Snapped back,” She said, instead of pitying him, and while Tony didn’t understand why she was bringing that up at that moment he wanted to see where that conversation ended. “And then fainted, Thor asked Strange to turn time back and save Loki and his people. I don’t know why Stephen did that, but he did. I could have asked him to bring me back to the Red Room. I could have killed them all, and save my life,” Tony looked at her, but, for the first time since he had known her, Natasha was avoiding his glance. “But then, I was scared of the person I could become. It’s difficult, but it’s for the best.”

“You mean -” Tony stopped, trying to find the words and he knew it was something weird, for him. “That I can’t tell which person I could become if this Howard will going to be my father instead of the person I grew up with?”

It made sense, of course, it did. Tony had studied enough about the theory behind time travels to understand that she was right, even if the continuum didn’t work like everyone thought it did. It would very likely create a parallel timeline, but with a fiancé who could walk through dimensions and universes, it was for the best to prevent that option. 

“Yes,” She answered before turning and smiling at him, her hand gently pushed against his shoulder. “But if you want me to kick his ass and threatening to kill him if he acts like an asshole, well, you just have to ask me.”

“It’d been pointless, and I kind of like this Howard,” Tony said, smiling and looking at her. Nat rolled her eyes to the ceiling. 

“I had no doubts about that!” She answered, before leaving. 

“Hey, you are hurting me!” He yelled back at her, even if she was already inside the lift at that point. 

—

“So, what do you want to do?” It took Tony a couple of minutes to understand that Christine was speaking with him. Her holo figure was wearing her scrubs which meant she was still at the hospital, and while Tony couldn’t see what was behind her, he could take an educated guess and suppose that she was heading home. 

“I don’t know,” He admitted. Stephen wasn’t at home, some sort of weird banishing ritual that needed his presence in Kamar-Taj, he said, stepping through a portal and promising he would be back soon. “Stephen said that he will erase their memories once he figures out a way to bring them back in the Forties, so, I don’t know, Chris…”

“There’s no reason to postpone the wedding, considering they won’t remember and you’ll have your dad by your side,” She filled in. Tony wouldn’t even stop to be surprised by how easily Christine understood him. Of course, it was because she was Stephen’s best friend and she could see through Tony’s fiancé bullshit and then she sort of started to do the same with Stark’s own, but still. 

“Yeah, except that, you know, we are both men, which is the reason why we are trying to keep this secret and why Steve and Bucky went back in Queens.”

“You can explain them -” 

“I’ll stop you there, maybe he’s different, but I know my father,” he said, running a hand in his hair. He didn’t want to, he wanted to finally marry the man he loved and let everything by his back, but he also knew how dangerous it could be when one Howard Stark was involved. “He won’t ever accept this, and again, they both come from a time when same-sex relationships are illegal, so, no way. We’ll send them back, before, and if we can’t, well, it’s not like the world is gonna end tomorrow, isn’t it?”

Christine raised elegantly an eyebrow at that. “Whatever - she commented - But I’m not explaining this to the catering, or the press. I’m a doctor, and I’m awful with PR. Also, I’m done, with both of you. I love you, but I’m not your fucking nanny.” 

Tony couldn’t help but smile. He really liked the woman, even if he wasn’t going to admit it anytime soon (not that he was sure she didn’t suspect that, but still). “Listen, I know, ok? I’d like to walk into that room and tell them and explain what happened between the 40s and now, but it’s not gonna work. I’ll handle the press, I did it for my entire life.”

“Does Steph agree with this?” Christine smiled, though Tony understood way too well what the woman really meant. They both knew him, and while pre-accident Stephen wouldn’t have let people see how much of an insecure person he was, Christine saw that, and that was something extremely important for everyone around the doctor. He was still waiting for the moment Tony would dump him. 

“He’s the one who suggested this,” Tony answered, nodding a moment later to his own thought. “I feel like he’s giving me another occasion to rethink about this thing, now. Did you really have to ask me?”

“Tony, you two love each other, and maybe you might never find a way to bring your father back. For what I know from time travel if him being there changed the past I shouldn’t be speaking with you. How long are you ready to wait?”

And, for once, Stark didn’t have an answer to that question. He didn’t want to, that was the truth. They postponed that day for far too long and the only thing he wanted to was to marry the man, he just wasn’t sure he would have found a way to bring his guests back before the end of the week, as in the day of the wedding. “I’ll have to speak with my father, I guess.”

“Just give it a try,” Christine nodded, before closing the communication when her pager started to buzz. 

—

Tony was pacing in the penthouse when the doors of the lift swung open revealing Howard. They started to spend a good amount of time together, especially in the lab and, not so surprising, the man seemed extremely found on Peter and Harley. There was no news in that: his father had always been a terrible person, but he knew how to recognize a smart kid when he saw one and had always had a way to speak with them. 

What didn’t surprise Tony either was the fact that while Peter tried to be civil with Howard, Harley went all protective, acting like the ironic brat he could be. Somehow, the older of the Starks seemed to appreciate that too. Tony couldn’t complain. As far as his kids were safe, he could co-exist in the same room with his dad. Then, again, the Howard with was currently living in the tower had nothing to do with the cold man he had known.  
But that didn’t mean that Tony wasn’t nervous, quite the opposite. And maybe timing had never been his thing and whatever Howard’s response to that was going to be, it was a little bit too late to call off the wedding and to postpone it. But, maybe, Tony was being illusional and was hoping for the best. 

_Dad just arrived,_ He texted to Stephen, before throwing the phone as far away as possible. His fiancé proposed to be with him while he spoke with Howard, but Tony didn’t know if it was for the best and Strange agreed on that. It was something he had to do by his own. And still, he was sure he would very gladly accept another universe-wide threat to face that speaks with his father. 

“Hello,” Howard said, a faint smile on his lips while he walked into the penthouse to reach Tony. “Your AI informed me you wanted to speak, is everything okay?”

Tony tried to sound as casual as he could, while he bent over the coffee table in the middle of the main room to offer his father a glass filled with whiskey. The feeling of alcohol burning his throat was better than the sting that was clasping his chest which was the reason why he decided to drink while having that conversation. 

“Yeah, I… There’s something I have to tell you and I need you to stay silent until I’ve finished and then you can do whatever you prefer,” _It’s not like I’m expecting you to be a decent human being and understand me_ went unsaid, even if Tony could physically hear that from the tone it was clear that was something he was keeping for himself. He didn’t let his eyes move from his father and only when the man nodded, he continued. “So, about Stephen, you met him and you need to know that there’s something I haven’t told you about him, well, about us.”

He stopped for a moment, trying to spot something on his father’s face and then took another sip from his glass. He had no idea of the reaction he was waiting for, but Howard seemed like a marble statue, much more similar to the man he had known when he was a kid. “And the truth is that I love him. We had been together for the past years and he sacrificed half of the universe for me, and I know you won’t understand what I’m saying, but he saved me, more than once, and the point is that he’s the love of my life and I’m planning to marry him. Well, we will get married in two days and -”

Howard moved on the sofa and the first thought that crossed Tony’s mind was that he was going to hit him. The man wouldn’t be so surprised. He had the possibility to know this young Howard and while he couldn’t see his father in the person in front of him, he knew the asshole was there, under the nice dandy-ish guy façade. He must be there. Because nobody changes so much, they just don’t. Though the man just nodded, a faint smile on his lips which didn’t match any image of the Howard Stark Tony had known. 

“I just lost a couple of Ben Franklins to Peggy,” He said, raising his glass before bringing it to his lips. And at that, Tony knew he was to a loss of words. He could literally feel his jaw drop and the image of Howard and Peggy betting on his love life was weird and out of place. And yet it matched the stories that Steve told him about his father. He’d always thought the Captain and Aunt Peggy were making those up to justify them being friend with Howard Stark, but, apparently, he was just another of the people who knew his father better than he did, along with Nick Fury, Bucky and probably another thousand of people. “She told me to pay attention at the way he looks at you, but, you know, I’ve never been good in pay attention to people.”

“You don’t get better,” Tony couldn’t help but said. 

“Yeah, I suspected that,” There was something that Tony couldn’t name, in his father’s tone, though he decided to ignore it and go back looking at the man seated in his living room. “But what I’m trying to say is that if he makes you happy, well, you are a grown man, and if in this future you can marry him, this makes me happy too. I’m not really suited to be a father, I won’t get better in that too, I suppose, but in those weeks I got to know you, and I’d like to think we get along pretty well, I just want the best for you.”

Tony nodded, and he would deny until the day he dies that he could feel tears burning at the corners of his eyes. He never thought his father would like him, and while he knew this wasn’t the man he grew up with, he could appreciate the clear effort he was making in trying to be a supportive parental figure. 

“Thank you,” Was all that Tony was able to say, before nodding and taking a final sip from the glass. They spent the rest of the day speaking about Stark Industries, the Expo and the Iron Man suits, but Tony felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. 

— 

Stephen came up offering a solution at some point during that evening. Tony, Howard and Peggy were having dinner together with the kids when the portal opened in the middle of the room in the penthouse. Peter wasn’t around because May wanted him at home for once, and Tony secretly knew it was because she wanted to tell him she started to date Wong. 

“Hi everyone,” He said, walking into the room, and Tony was just mildly aware of the fact that his smile went totally bright the moment the Sorcerer entered the room. “I might have found a solution to bring Mr Stark and Ms Carter back when they belong. I mean, apparently the moment that machine brought them here, it created a different timeline in which they continue to live their lives.” 

He let his steel-blue eyes ran on the people in front of him, trying to understand if they got what he said. Tony was sure he could and for this reason he nodded, inviting his fiancé to continue. “Which means that until they will be back, everything will be fine. There’s no risk that your father would never meet your mother or the likes. The only problem is that to send them back, they must be exposed to the direct influence of the Time Stone.”

“Which means that you can’t do it with your fancy necklace,” Tony answered receiving questioning glances by everyone else in the room. 

“Yeah, exactly,” Stephen nodded, running a hand in his hair. “We need to find a way to canalize the powers from the Stone. But it might take longer -”

“I’m sure Tony and I can create something,” Howard stopped him, and while Stephen opened his mouth ready to retort, the man continued: “But if there aren’t threats for the continuum, we can wait after your honeymoon, can’t we?”

“I guess we… - What?!” Stephen’s eyes went to Tony who was this close to tears when nodded back at the Sorcerer’s question. 

“I told them,” Came Stark’s answer, while a soft smile was still lingering on his face. “And apparently you are so love struck that they already noticed. But I love you, so you are forgiven.”

And if everyone started to laugh at that, including their little girl, well, maybe for once, Tony would have had a good memory related to Howard Stark and that was good.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos and comments are highly appreciated.  
> Say hi on Tumblr @myrxellabaratheon or @ironstrange-is-the-endgame


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